Goaltender

From Free net encyclopedia

This article is about the goaltender in ice hockey. For the similar position in other sports, see Goalkeeper

Image:Patrick roy.jpg The goaltender (also known colloquially as goalie or netminder) in ice hockey is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goalie usually plays in or near the area in front of the net called the goal crease (often referred to simply as crease). Due to the power and frequency of shots, the goaltender wears special equipment designed to protect the body from direct impact. No more than one player on each hockey team plays as goalie at any one time in a game.

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Goaltender play in ice hockey

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Goalie privileges

Goaltender is typically a specialized position in ice hockey; at higher levels in the game, no goalies play other positions and no other players play goalie. A typical ice hockey team may have on its roster two or three goaltenders. The goaltender has special privileges that other players do not. He or she wears special goaltending equipment that is subject to different regulations from those regarding the gear of other players. The goalie may legally hold the puck with his or her hands to cause a stoppage of play. If a player from the other team hits him or her without making an attempt to get out of his or her way, the offending player is penalized. In some leagues, if a goalie's stick breaks, he or she can continue playing with a broken stick until the play is stopped, unlike other players who must drop any broken sticks immediately.

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Goalie saves

When a goalie blocks or otherwise stops a shot from going into his goal net, that action is called a save. Goalies often subscribe to a style, but in general they makes saves any way they can: catching the puck with their glove hand, deflecting the shot with their stick, blocking it with their leg pads or blocker or another part of their body, collapsing to butterfly position to block any low shot is coming, especially if it is in close proximity. After making a save, controlling the rebound is attempted so to avoid a goal scored by an opposing player when the goaltender is out of positiong ('scoring on a rebound'), or simply to allow the goalie's own team to get control of the puck. Goalies often catch a shot if they can to better control how it re-enters play. If there is immediate pressure, a goalie may choose to hold on to the puck (for a second or more, with judgement from the referee) to stop play for a face-off. If a goalie holds on to the puck for too long without any pressure they may be subject to a 2-minute 'delay of game' penalty. Recently, in the NHL, goalies have been restricted as to where they can play the puck behind the net. See also shot on goal, save percentage, and goals against average.

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Goalie Styles

There are many ways to stop the puck and methods of doing this have been created over. The oldest one is the "Stand Up" style. In this style you stop the puck from a standing position, not going down. The Goalies may bend over to stop the puck with their upper body or may kick the puck. Those saves made by kicking are known as kick saves or skate saves. They may also simply use their stick to stop it. This was the style seen in the early NHL and was used up until the retirement of Kirk Mclean who is regarded as the last stand up goalie in the NHL.

The style that came after "Stand Up" was "Toes Up". In this style a goalie will go down to stop the puck and will kick their pads out wards with their toes pointed towards the ceiling. From this position goalies found more success stopping pucks down low than they had in stand up position. This was seen most often from the 70's through mid 90's. Grant Fuhr was the most notable goalie of this style and made a living off of amazing and difficult looking saves from this style.

Another style is the "Butterfly", where goalies go down with both pads with their toes pointing out wards and the tops of their pads meeting in the middle. It often will stop pucks from going in from low angle due to the lack of holes. Early innovators of this style were goaltending greats Glenn Hall and Tony Esposito, who played their careers during the 50's-60's, and 70's-80's respectively. Hall is generally credited to be among the very first to use this style, and both he and Esposito had tremendous success with it. This is the most widely used style in the NHL today. "Butterfly" goalies have developed methods of sliding in the "Butterfly" position in order to move around fast in one timer situations. Patrick Roy is perhaps the greatest goalie to have employed this style. As pad size increased it became a more notable style of goaltending and is still currently evolving.

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Goalie penalties and substitutions

A goalie can get a penalty like any other player, but the goalie tends to have less bodily contact with players from the opposing team and therefore rarely gets a penalty. When he or she does get a penalty, the coach is allowed to select another player, who was on the ice at the time of the infraction, to sit in the penalty box for him or her, unless the goalie has been penalized for fighting. Goalies skate around the ice rink much less during play than other players and are substituted far less frequently in a game; typically, unless he or she performs poorly, a goalie plays out the entire game.

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Empty net situations

Normally, the goalie plays in or near the goal crease the whole game. However, there are a couple of situations when a goalie may leave the ice rink to be substituted by an attacking player to increase his or her team's chance of scoring a goal. A team temporarily playing with no goalie is said to be playing with an empty net. If the opposing team commits a penalty while the goalie's team has control of the puck, the goalie may leave to be substituted because as soon as the penalized team gets control of the puck, play is stopped by the referee to issue the penalty, before they can score a goal. However, if the team with an empty net puts the puck in their own goal net by mistake, the goal still counts against them.

Also, during the last minute or so of a game, if a team is likely to lose anyway because they are a goal behind and the puck and playing action are on the other team's side of the ice rink, the coach may decide to have the goalie leave the rink to be substituted by an attacking player to increase the team's chance of scoring a goal to tie the game. Since no goalie is protecting the empty net, it is easier for the opposing team to score an empty net goal.

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NHL goaltender awards

  • The Vezina Trophy is awarded each year by the NHL to the league's most outstanding goaltender as determined by the general managers of the teams.
  • The William M. Jennings Trophy is awarded each year by the NHL to the goaltender(s) from the team that allowed the fewest goals during the regular season.
  • The Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award is awarded each year by the NHL to the goaltender with the best save percentage during the regular season.
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Goalies who have scored in a game

A goalie scoring a goal in an NHL game is a very rare feat. Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur have both accomplished this twice, each doing so once in the regular season and once in the playoffs. Several of the goals, the ones in italics below did not result from the goalie actually shooting the puck; they were credited with goals because they were the last people on their respective teams to touch the puck. Damien Rhodes is the only player in NHL history to score a in a shutout.

Antero Niittymaki of the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms is the only known professional goalie to score in overtime, doing so when the Hershey Bears, needing a win in their last game to make the playoffs, pulled their goalie and an errant pass wound up in their net.

List of goals scored by NHL goalies (bold indicates a playoff game):

See also: NHL Goalies who have scored in a game

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Notable Goaltenders

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See also

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External links

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